On Climate Change

A Facebook friend of mine, Steven McCain made this observation:

Climate change is either true or false. We have a 50% chance of being right. That leaves us with only 4 options.

1. It's true and we take action. We leave a better world for our descendants.

2. It's true and we take no action. The world as we know it disappears.

3 It's false and we take action. We leave a better world for our descendants.

4. It's false and we take no action. We leave a more polluted world for our descendants.

It's basically the same as this cartoon:

Think happy thoughts, kids. 

Positive thoughts.

Good and timely question

Is Earth Day Dead?

Here's another good question, to my mind:  don't we need Earth Day now, more than ever, to raise awareness of what we're doing to this planet in so many ways?

Links:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1378816/Texas-wildfires-Million-acres-scorched-towns-red-alert.html 

http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_6d48fc16-8edd-591e-acd3-91beac10804f.html

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/21/rick-perry-pray-for-rain/ 

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html

http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2011/04/19/135510923/washing-away-the-arctic-coastline?print=1

Glacier melt in our hot, hot Summer and what it might mean

Greenland Ice Sheet Faces 'Tipping Point in 10 Years' Scientists warn that temperature rise of between 2C and 7C would cause ice to melt, resulting in 23ft rise in sea level by Suzanne Goldenberg WASHINSTON - The entire ice mass of Greenland will disappear from the world map if temperatures rise by as little as 2C, with severe consequences for the rest of the world, a panel of scientists told Congress Tuesday. An enormous chunk of ice, roughly 97 square miles in size, has broken off the Petermann Glacier along the northwest coast of Greenland. Greenland shed its largest chunk of ice in nearly half a century last week, and faces an even grimmer future, according to Richard Alley, a geosciences professor at Pennsylvania State University "Sometime in the next decade we may pass that tipping point which would put us warmer than temperatures that Greenland can survive," Alley told a briefing in Congress, adding that a rise in the range of 2C to 7C would mean the obliteration of Greenland's ice sheet. The fall-out would be felt thousands of miles away from the Arctic, unleashing a global sea level rise of 23ft (7 metres), Alley warned. Low-lying cities such as New Orleans would vanish. "What is going on in the Arctic now is the biggest and fastest thing that nature has ever done," he said. From a different article and source yesterday, too: Since 1970, temperatures have risen more than 4.5 degrees (2.5 degrees C) in much of the Arctic — much faster than the global average. In June the Arctic sea ice cover was at the lowest level for that month since records began in 1979, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Back to me: Two plus two is starting to look like four, folks. Link to original posts: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/11-1 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100810/ap_on_sc/eu_ice_island

Quote of the day--on climate change

An island of ice more than four times the size of Manhattan is drifting across the Arctic Ocean after breaking off from a glacier in Greenland. It's been a summer of near biblical climatic havoc across the planet, with wildfires, heat and smog in Russia and killer floods in Asia. But the moment the Petermann glacier cracked last week — creating the biggest Arctic ice island in half a century — may symbolize a warming world like no other. "It's so big that you can't prevent it from drifting. You can't stop it," said Jon-Ove Methlie Hagen, a glaciologist at the University of Oslo. Back to me: If you don't yet think anything is happening with climate change due to man's injection of CO2 in large quantities into the atmosphere, what is it going to take to convince you? Link to original post: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100810/ap_on_sc/eu_ice_island

Russia's disbelief in global warming? What about ours?

There is an article out right now at Time Magazine asking "Will Russia's Heat Wave End Its Global-Warming Doubts? It seems the people over there, too, apparently didn't believe there was any change coming about, in spite of the polar ice caps and the glaciers the world over, melting. So yeah, I have to ask, what with Russia's literally, historically unprecedented and ongoing heat wave over a good deal of the country, their drought (admittedly a possibly if not likely shorter-term indication, however problematic right now), the fires raging out of control, the ice sheet that just broke off Iceland this week that is larger than the island of Manhattan, the glaciers that have been shrinking for the past few decades at least and the ice caps that are doing the same, are people in the US, here at home, going to "wake up and smell the forest fires"? Are we going to collectively face facts and accept that how we all--worldwide--are living is unsustainable and that we have to do things about it? I doubt it. But I hope it. I hope we'll learn and all accept that we have to change. And soon. Link to additional posts: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100810/ap_on_sc/eu_ice_island http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/11-1 http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/08/09-4

Just focus on the glaciers and ice caps

Forget everything else you hear, read or see on high and low temperatures locally or anywhere on the planet, when it comes to global warming or climate change or however you want to refer to it. Let's focus instead on one thing--or one group, anyway. Let's focus on the ice caps and glaciers of the world, shall we? They're both--all, really--melting. And they're melting at unprecedented rates. Sure, a big swath of Russia is on fire and their food crop is severely affected and they're having to move around their missiles and planes and other weapons and, finally, they're experiencing their highest temperatures in the history of record-keeping but let's ignore all that. We're not Russians, after all, right? and we're not there. But pay attention to the glaciers and ice caps and keep in mind that, again, they're both melting to our peril, and they are melting at unprecedented rates. Check this out, today, from The Huffington Post: A giant ice island has broken off the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland. A University of Delaware researcher says the floating ice sheet covers 100 square miles – more than four times the size of New York's Manhattan Island. (See link below) 100 square miles of ice, folks. Can you even imagine that? I know I can't. And it just broke off the rest of the continent. And it's floating away. And melting. We're getting warmer and it's decidedly not a good thing. The way we live is not sustainable. Look around. We need to change. We need to use less. Keep cool this weekend, folks. (Just not too cool.) Link to original post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/07/petermann-glacier-giant-i_n_674326.html